• Falsifiable = You could prove it wrong if it’s not true.
  • Example: “This coin will land heads 50% of the time.” → You can flip the coin many times and check.
  • Falsifiable = testable (science lives here).
  • Falsifiable = checkable, correctable, scientific.
• Unfalsifiable = You can’t prove it wrong, no matter what happens.
  • Example: “Invisible beings make the coin land the way it does.” → No test could ever disprove that.
  • Unfalsifiable = not testable (beliefs, opinions, or pseudoscience often live here).
  • Unfalsifiable = uncheckable, unfalsifiable, stuck in belief.

Being falsifiable is important because it’s what separates science from belief or speculation. Here’s why:

1. It Makes a Claim Testable

If a claim is falsifiable, we can actually design an experiment or gather evidence to check if it’s true or false.

• Example: “This medicine lowers blood sugar.”
  → We can test it with patients and measurements.

2. It Allows Science to Self-Correct

Science works by trial and error. Wrong ideas get weeded out when evidence proves them false.

• Without falsifiability, bad ideas can never be removed — they stay forever.

3. It Protects Against Excuses

If a claim is unfalsifiable, people can always explain away failures (“it didn’t work because you didn’t believe hard enough”).

• Falsifiability forces accountability: either the evidence supports it, or it doesn’t.

4. It Builds Reliable Knowledge

Falsifiable claims help us narrow in on what’s actually true. Every time we rule out a wrong explanation, we get closer to the right one.

Examples of Unfalsifiable Claims

Unfalsifiable (Not Testable) Claims

An unfalsifiable claim is one that cannot be proven wrong, no matter what evidence you collect.

• Spiritual Example:
  “A hidden spiritual energy guides the universe.”
  → No measurement could disprove this; any outcome can be explained as “the energy’s will.”
• Pseudoscientific Example:
  “If a homeopathic remedy doesn’t work, it’s because you didn’t believe strongly enough.”
  → Any failure is explained away, so the claim is never at risk of being falsified.
• Everyday Example:
  “Everything happens for a reason.”
  → No matter what occurs, it can always be interpreted as having some reason. There’s no possible counterexample.

Pseudoscience may present hypotheses that look falsifiable, but in practice they are usually shielded from genuine testing.

Junk science involves misuse of legitimate methods, often for bias or profit.

Science is distinguished by actively inviting falsification and discarding claims when they fail tests.

Feature	Science	Pseudoscience	Junk Science
Falsifiability	Hypotheses are explicitly testable and falsifiable	Claims are vague, unfalsifiable, or insulated from disproof	Hypotheses may be falsifiable but evidence is distorted or cherry-picked
Response to Evidence	Discards or revises ideas when disproven	Explains away failures, adds ad hoc excuses	Selectively accepts data that confirm a predetermined conclusion
Methodology	Follows systematic, transparent methods	Mimics scientific language but lacks rigorous method	Uses real scientific methods poorly or dishonestly
Peer Review	Actively seeks peer review and replication	Often avoids peer review or publishes in dubious outlets	May appear in real journals but with manipulated or weak data
Openness to Criticism	Welcomes scrutiny, replication, and debate	Resistant to criticism; treats skeptics as hostile	Avoids scrutiny by hiding data or overstating certainty
Examples	Clinical trials, physics experiments, evolutionary biology	Astrology, homeopathy (in its traditional form), crystal healing	Tobacco-industry research denying smoking harms; misleading climate reports